High-Church Lutherans, eh?

Yesterday evening I attended Trinity Lutheran Church (LCMS) over in Elkhart. (Remember that accompaniment job I mentioned? Some of the children were singing an anthem at the service and I accompanied them.) It was the second most high-church Lutheran service I have ever attended. (The highest-church Lutherans I have encountered so far are at Emmaus Lutheran — also LCMS, incidentally — where the pastor goes so far as to preside ad orientem.) They have a rather unusual liturgy at Trinity. Though it's clearly based on the standard Lutheran order of worship, there are many elements taken from Roman Catholicism. (An aside: these are the sort of Lutherans, I suspect, for whom the adjective "Roman" must be appended to "Catholic", to avoid confusion; like Anglo-Catholics, these Lutherans affirm their membership in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. Why should the Papists have a monopoly on the word "catholic"?) I was most surprised to find the Domine non sum dignus, an admirable pre-Communion prayer I have only heard in R.C. Masses: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." (Never mind that it's a poor translation of the Latin. At least they're using it.) Now, I have heard that this particular prayer was added at the Council of Trent (a concession, of sorts, to emphasize that, despite past abuses, the Church never taught the doctrine of salvation by works alone). We have, then, cross-fertilization of Roman Catholic and Lutheran liturgies, post-Reformation! Ecumenically speaking, I see no reason why this is a bad thing. If we can agree on so much (on the Real Presence in the Eucharist, on the Justification of sinners, on the value of meaningful — which is to say, liturgical — liturgy), then perhaps there is cause for optimism. I really cannot abide the sort of chauvinistic Christian who is so committed to his own denomination that he sees no benefit in ecumenical dialogue. Indeed, the desire to help heal the rifts of the Reformation is one of the chief fruits of the Second Vatican Council. Admittedly, we may regret aspects of the implementation of ideas from Vatican II (guitars, bad vestments, et al.), but it is vital that we hold on to the impetus to work towards reunification of the sundered Christian churches. Good liturgy is an important way to move towards this goal.